In February, Kevin and a few other of his colleagues, received an e-mail from their work about the need for someone to work out of their NYC office for 8-12 weeks to work on an understaffed project. He texted me a screenshot with a “wouldn’t that be nice…”. I mean we have two toddlers, responsibilities, and a host of other excuses… how could we make something like that work? I was at work when I received the text and casually mentioned it to my friend Sallie who was nearby. She said, “It’s only 8-12 weeks. You should do it!”. I got to thinking and figured, shoot, it’s now or never! Life is only going to get more complicated as the kids get bigger! So I shot back a text to Kev with a “tell them we’re interested.” Well within two weeks we were packing up our bags and boarding a flight to NYC!

We arrived bright eyed and bushy tailed on March 3rd and moved into a small studio apartment in Tribeca… and we loved it! The sounds, the smells, the weather, the busyness… it was all so exciting! We had two big windows that our kids could sit in and watch the traffic below, high ceilings, and just the right amount of space to make it work. I whipped together a bucket-list/to-do list and went to town (literally). Every day I tried to get out and accomplish something with the kids. Some days things went just as planned but most days I had to apply a little extra patience, ingenuity, and, quite literally, muscle to get through our daily adventure. Let me just tell you, pushing a double stroller in NYC is HARD (bumpy roads, flights on flights of stairs, tight subway trains, and just rude people made it quite the challenge)! However, come to find out, these kids are easy to please… elevators, subway stations, and local parks were all they needed to have the best of days.

One of my favorite parts about where we lived was the 10 minute walking commute from Kevin’s work; he was able to pop in at lunch and could get home quickly after work for nightly outings! We’ve never been able to see so much of each other during the week and it was awesome! I also loved how close we were to some of the best parks in the city, kid friendly libraries, City Hall, One World Trade Center and 9/11 Memorial, the Occulus, Brookfield Center, Battery Park, AND Target! We were never short on things to do. We tried to pick up new books at the library each week to help us get by on our shortage of toys and space in the apartment. But even with stacks of books, Apple TV was used a lot during indoor time because mama was still working part time and needed to get things done without them playing with the oven or other kid-unfriendly objects. They obviously loved it but I started seeing the repercussions of it as the trip stretched on. (Side note: since we’ve been home we have gone to 0 screen time to detox from the incessant white noise and I instantly saw an improvement in behavior, contentment, and sleep! What a difference it makes to have unguided, free play outside… I LOVE having a yard!)

Towards the end of April we found out that our stay was extended until May 19 however our current apartment was given away May 1 so we had to move to Midtown for the remainder of our trip! Multiple taxi & subway trips back and forth to move everything uptown we finally arrived at our new place on 39th street. This new spot was not nearly as “charming” to me as family-friendly Tribeca. It was busier, louder, and the apartment was SMALLER! We tried hard to grin and bare it, because after all, this was the experience of a lifetime, but boy did it make it more challenging! Funny thing is the kids absolutely loved the change in scenery. They didn’t notice that the place was smaller or any of the other “pitfalls” about the move. They were happy that the place still had an elevator, that we were closer to Central Park, Times Square, and the Empire State Building. Their innocent, starry eyed outlook really helped put it in perspective for us. In fact, the week or two leading up to our departure Parker would get upset any time we mentioned coming home to San Dimas. According to him, he wanted to stay at “the ark” (aka New York) forever.

However the day finally arrived and we boarded a plane with multiple pieces of luggage, a double stroller, two wild toddlers, and enough candy to get us through the 6 hour plane ride. When we stepped through the front door of our house we let out a huge sigh of relief and rejoiced at the amount of space we returned to. Never have we appreciated our home more!

This amazing, and challenging, 3 month adventure gave us a refreshed perspective and appreciation for the many things we have been blessed with. We love NYC but we sure do love little ol’ San Dimas too. Thankful for this unique opportunity and the way God used it to bring our family closer together, instill a new-found confidence in myself, as a mom, and give us memories to last a lifetime.